Warehouse selection strategies in Snowflake - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Warehouse selection strategies

📖 Scenario: You are managing a Snowflake cloud data platform. You want to create a simple strategy to select the best warehouse for running queries based on their size and availability.

🎯 Goal: Build a Snowflake SQL script that defines warehouses with their sizes and statuses, sets a minimum size threshold, selects warehouses that meet the threshold and are available, and finally chooses the warehouse with the smallest size that meets these conditions.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a table variable called warehouses with columns name, size, and status and insert exact rows

Create a variable called min_size with the value 'MEDIUM'

Write a query that selects warehouses with size greater than or equal to min_size and status equal to 'AVAILABLE'

Select the warehouse with the smallest size from the filtered results

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Selecting the right warehouse in Snowflake helps optimize query performance and cost by choosing the best available compute resource.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and data platform administrators often need to automate warehouse selection to improve efficiency and resource management.

1

Create the warehouses table variable

Create a table variable called warehouses with columns name (string), size (string), and status (string). Insert these exact rows: ('WH_SMALL', 'SMALL', 'AVAILABLE'), ('WH_MEDIUM', 'MEDIUM', 'AVAILABLE'), ('WH_LARGE', 'LARGE', 'BUSY'), ('WH_XLARGE', 'XLARGE', 'AVAILABLE').

Snowflake

-- Your code here

Hint

Use DECLARE to create a table variable and INSERT INTO to add rows.

2

Set the minimum warehouse size

Create a variable called min_size and set it to the string value 'MEDIUM'.

Snowflake

DECLARE warehouses TABLE (name STRING, size STRING, status STRING);

INSERT INTO warehouses VALUES
('WH_SMALL', 'SMALL', 'AVAILABLE'),
('WH_MEDIUM', 'MEDIUM', 'AVAILABLE'),
('WH_LARGE', 'LARGE', 'BUSY'),
('WH_XLARGE', 'XLARGE', 'AVAILABLE');

-- Your code here

Hint

Use DECLARE with DEFAULT to set the variable.

3

Filter warehouses by size and availability

Write a SELECT query that retrieves all columns from warehouses where size is greater than or equal to min_size and status is exactly 'AVAILABLE'.

Snowflake

DECLARE warehouses TABLE (name STRING, size STRING, status STRING);

INSERT INTO warehouses VALUES
('WH_SMALL', 'SMALL', 'AVAILABLE'),
('WH_MEDIUM', 'MEDIUM', 'AVAILABLE'),
('WH_LARGE', 'LARGE', 'BUSY'),
('WH_XLARGE', 'XLARGE', 'AVAILABLE');

DECLARE min_size STRING DEFAULT 'MEDIUM';

-- Your code here

Hint

Use a WHERE clause with both conditions joined by AND.

4

Select the smallest suitable warehouse

Modify the previous SELECT query to order the results by size ascending and limit the output to 1 row to select the smallest warehouse that meets the criteria.

Snowflake

DECLARE warehouses TABLE (name STRING, size STRING, status STRING);

INSERT INTO warehouses VALUES
('WH_SMALL', 'SMALL', 'AVAILABLE'),
('WH_MEDIUM', 'MEDIUM', 'AVAILABLE'),
('WH_LARGE', 'LARGE', 'BUSY'),
('WH_XLARGE', 'XLARGE', 'AVAILABLE');

DECLARE min_size STRING DEFAULT 'MEDIUM';

SELECT * FROM warehouses
WHERE size >= min_size
AND status = 'AVAILABLE'
-- Your code here

Hint

Use ORDER BY and LIMIT to get the smallest warehouse.

Practice

1. What does the USE WAREHOUSE command do in Snowflake?

easy

A. It lists all available warehouses.

B. It switches the current warehouse to run queries.

C. It deletes an existing warehouse.

D. It creates a new warehouse.

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the purpose of USE WAREHOUSE

   This command changes which warehouse is active for running queries.

2. Step 2: Compare with other commands

   Creating, deleting, or listing warehouses use different commands, not USE WAREHOUSE.

3. Final Answer:

   It switches the current warehouse to run queries. -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   USE WAREHOUSE changes active warehouse [OK]

Hint: Remember: USE means switch active warehouse [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing USE with CREATE or DROP commands
• Thinking it lists warehouses
• Assuming it modifies warehouse size

2. Which of the following is the correct syntax to switch to a warehouse named COMPUTE_WH?

easy

A. USE WAREHOUSE COMPUTE_WH;

B. SWITCH WAREHOUSE COMPUTE_WH;

C. SELECT WAREHOUSE COMPUTE_WH;

D. CHANGE WAREHOUSE TO COMPUTE_WH;

Solution

1. Step 1: Recall the correct command syntax

   The command to switch warehouses is USE WAREHOUSE <name>;.

2. Step 2: Check each option

   Only USE WAREHOUSE COMPUTE_WH; matches the correct syntax exactly.

3. Final Answer:

   USE WAREHOUSE COMPUTE_WH; -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Correct syntax = USE WAREHOUSE [name]; [OK]

Hint: USE WAREHOUSE plus name switches warehouse [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using SWITCH or CHANGE instead of USE
• Adding extra keywords like TO or SELECT
• Missing semicolon at end

3. Given the following commands run in order:

USE WAREHOUSE SMALL_WH;
SELECT CURRENT_WAREHOUSE();
USE WAREHOUSE LARGE_WH;
SELECT CURRENT_WAREHOUSE();

What will be the output of the two CURRENT_WAREHOUSE() calls?

medium

A. SMALL_WH then LARGE_WH

B. LARGE_WH then SMALL_WH

C. SMALL_WH twice

D. LARGE_WH twice

Solution

1. Step 1: Analyze the first USE WAREHOUSE command

   The first command sets the active warehouse to SMALL_WH, so the first CURRENT_WAREHOUSE() returns SMALL_WH.

2. Step 2: Analyze the second USE WAREHOUSE command

   The second command switches the active warehouse to LARGE_WH, so the second CURRENT_WAREHOUSE() returns LARGE_WH.

3. Final Answer:

   SMALL_WH then LARGE_WH -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Warehouse switches reflect in CURRENT_WAREHOUSE() [OK]

Hint: Each USE WAREHOUSE changes current warehouse immediately [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Assuming warehouse does not change after second USE
• Mixing order of outputs
• Thinking CURRENT_WAREHOUSE() returns session name

4. You run the command USE WAREHOUSE BIG_WH but get an error saying the warehouse does not exist. What is the most likely cause?

medium

A. The command requires a semicolon at the end.

B. You need to restart your Snowflake session.

C. You must create a database before switching warehouses.

D. The warehouse name is misspelled or does not exist.

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the error message

   The error says the warehouse does not exist, so the name is likely wrong or missing.

2. Step 2: Evaluate other options

   Restarting session or creating a database is unrelated; semicolon missing usually causes syntax error, not 'does not exist'.

3. Final Answer:

   The warehouse name is misspelled or does not exist. -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Nonexistent warehouse name causes error [OK]

Hint: Check warehouse name spelling if 'does not exist' error appears [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Restarting session unnecessarily
• Confusing warehouse with database
• Ignoring error message details

5. You have two warehouses: SMALL_WH with 1 cluster and LARGE_WH with 4 clusters. You want to run a heavy query quickly but also save costs on light queries. Which strategy is best?

hard

A. Always use LARGE_WH for all queries to ensure speed.

B. Use SMALL_WH only and increase its size when needed.

C. Use SMALL_WH for light queries and switch to LARGE_WH for heavy queries.

D. Create a new warehouse for each query type.

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand warehouse sizes and costs

   SMALL_WH is cheaper and good for light work; LARGE_WH is bigger and faster but costs more.

2. Step 2: Choose strategy balancing speed and cost

   Switching warehouses based on query load saves cost and improves performance.

3. Final Answer:

   Use SMALL_WH for light queries and switch to LARGE_WH for heavy queries. -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Match warehouse size to query load for cost and speed [OK]

Hint: Match warehouse size to query weight, switch as needed [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using large warehouse always wastes cost
• Trying to resize warehouses dynamically
• Creating many warehouses unnecessarily